$8 million contract to protect Kenner pump station awarded by corps

Ted Jackson, The Times-PicayuneA home in the gated Gabriel subdivision peers over the levee as water from Lake Pontchartrain breaks against rip rap.
Plans by the Corps of Engineers to build a 14-foot breakwater in Lake subdivision, to protect the Duncan Canal Pump Station all but end plans for a marina at Gabriel.

An $8 million contract to build a new concrete and steel breakwater designed to help protect Duncan Canal Pump Station in Kenner from storm -fueled waves in Lake Pontchartrain has been awarded.

Although the Army Corps of Engineers had expected to make the award in June, a spokeswoman said the structure e will be "substantially complete" by next June, the first month of hurricane season 2010.

It was the second breakwater construction contract awarded in the last few months; a $9.15 million contract is now underway near the Bonnabel Pump Station in Metairie.

The pair is an opening salvo in the corps' plan to build and-or modify breakwaters at all four East Jefferson pump stations, as well as construct four massive concrete "fronting protection" structures at each.

Once complete, the pair at each station should help reduce the risk of flooding from a so-called "100-year" storm, which is one with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year. By way of comparison, Hurricane Katrina was considered almost a 400-year storm.

The new contract, won by Boh Brothers Construction Co. of New Orleans, is to build a breakwater some 150 to 200 feet offshore that will be connected to land by a bridge.

Although made of concrete and steel, the structure will rest on a two-foot rock layer on the bottom of the lake near its confluence with Duncan Canal immediately east of the gated Gabriel subdivision, site of the old Jefferson Downs race track.

By contrast, the fronting protection structures are built immediately adjacent to the stations. Each will be similar to a concrete T-wall with gates that allow the station to continue discharging stormwater .

Although fronting contracts haven't yet been awarded, they will be 17 feet high at all stations except the Elmwood Station, which would be built to an elevation of 21 feet.

A corps spokeswoman said award of Duncan Canal's breakwater contract was delayed because prospective bidders had questions about the contract as advertised, and those questions had to be answered before the process could continue.

The breakwater project is expected to take no more than 10 months to complete, according to the corps.

.......Sheila Grissett can be reached at sgrissett@timespicayune.com or 504.717.7700.